My friend Martin sent me a link to a page of Star Trek-themed ‘inspirational posters‘. Some of these are just hilarious. You can download larger versions too! I suggest you print them up and hang them around your workplace. Especially the first one… and Nomad. 
Author: ryan
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Star Trek Inspirational Posters
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Verbified
I forgot to post this earlier, but my place of employment blogged about me earlier this week. Pretty funny really, this phrase was coined by one of my coworkers, Derek, my first week at SuperSweetCo (I'll continue using this pseudonym even though the link on this page links the two together). I thought it was funny when he said "Vanderzand that shit!" when referring to a page that needed some attention. However, I didn't expect it to spread like it did, and rapidly others in the company started saying the same thing. Very odd having my last name 'verbified'.
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The Plan
So I have a plan. It's not a very good plan, but a plan nonetheless. I plan to write about the various beers I've sampled over the past few weeks. This is above and beyond my minimal reports of previous beerfests, but to go into some level of detail of the beers I've sampled over the past few weeks… things Ive purchased from John's Marketplace, etc. I've been keeping notes. I swear. Side note: writing this to The Smiths song 'Well I Wonder'. What a great tune.
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Chad Vader (for the uninitiated)
Among of the funnier YouTube videos I've seen in a while (right next to the Star Trek G4TV videos out there) are the Chad Vader ones. I had seen the first Chad Vader a little while back but this morning discovered 'Episode 2'. Watch them in order, they're pretty funny (if you're a Star Wars nerd and enjoy parody). If you haven't seen the Star Trek G4 ones, I highly recommend them too. Artwork, dope.
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More beer and whatnot
Tonight I spent a few hours with my good friend Snooks at McMenamins Kenney School. Had a good time chatting about books, movies, sci-fi television shows, and other nerd-esque things. Thanks Snooks for coming out and helping take my brain off work.
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Brewfest Neglect
Yes, I know, I've slacked for a few days. I've been meaning to write about last weekends brewfest and just haven't gotten around to it yet. Well now's the time folks.
Kelly and I ran down last Saturday and met up with our good friends Ghost Dog (seen to the left) and his wonderful wife. We hung out with them for a few hours and had a great time sampling beers. 
I had some pretty tasty beers too, here's a quick recap: Bell's Brewery 'Hell Hath No Fury… Ale', tasty, dark and rich. Dick's Brewing Co. 'Dick's Best Bitter', pretty good, nice hop to malt balance. McMenamins Concordia Brewery 'White Lightning Whisky Stout', strong and malty. Big Sky Brewing Co 'Summer Honey', nice light summer beer, very tasty. Anderson Valley Brewing Co 'Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema', one of the better ones I tried, nice and smooth and while light it had a nice malty flavor. 
The place was nuts (as always) though it seemed even more packed than it was last year. Maybe it was just me. However, while Kelly and I were there (from about 2pm until 5pm) everybody there were friendly and courteous. It was a good time overall. Kelly and I however left because we were finished dealing with the crowd, headed to the Shanghai Tunnel for some quiet and some food, and later hopped the bus back to our part of town and spent a bit of time at Binks. Good day, and a lot of fun. -
Grant-Lee Phillips, and much more
Last night was a crazy evening. It started at the end of the work day…
The company I work for was throwing a party last night the Thirsty Lion for attendees of OSCON, an open source software convention being held in Portland over the next couple days. I was destined for Berbati's Pan (right around the corner from the Thirsty Lion) to see Grant-Lee Phillips with Kelly and our good friend Miranda, and told my manager that I wasn't sure if I was going to the party because of the show. My manager said "Oh? I think the boss's sister is playing there." Come to find out that my boss is a brother of Kristin Hersh, of Throwing Muses fame, who was opening for Grant-Lee.
I met Kelly and Miranda at the Shanghai Tunnel and then at around 7:30 I decided to do some recon of the scene at the Thirsty Lion. It was a fairly packed event, and there were free drink tickets and free food, so I decided to report back to Kelly and Miranda. We decided to go (since I had brought some entry cards with me from the office) and we had a good time. While there I get a call from my brother Travis. Last night was also Katie's 21st birthday (brother Chad's girlfriend) and they were all headed downtown. They found us at the Thirsty Lion, Travis got a list of places nearby from me, and then they all headed down to the Shanghai Tunnel, with a promise to meet up later on after Kelly, Miranda and I get out of the Grant-Lee show. Whew.
We went to the show, which was very good and very mellow. Kristen Hersh is a really good performer, with a fantastic voice. It was just her with an acoustic guitar on a stool. At one point towards the end of her set she invited Grant-Lee on stage and they performed together, but aside from that it was all her.Grant-Lee came on around 10:45pm and was similarly stripped-down (just him with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, and the drummer).
It was a great show, though I have to admit that after the last time we saw him, with a full band, it was a bit disappointing. While Grant-Lee is a fantastic performer, full of wit and charm, I found myself missing the fullness of sound from the previous show. Still, it was definitely worth going. Kristen Hersh joined him on stage for a couple songs (as did another fellow he invited up who's name I forget), and he played most of the songs on his latest album and a few from the Grant Lee Buffalo days including Mockingbird, which made Kelly and I very happy. His cover of the New Order song 'Age of Consent' both live and on the album are excellent, giving me chills and warm-fuzzies at the same time. 
After the show at about 12:45am, Kelly, Miranda and I met up with the rest of the gang at the outdoor seating of the bar part of Berbati's for another drink for Katie's birthday before Kelly and I came home. Whew, what a night. Happy birthday Katie, hope you had a great birthday! -
I hate the heat
As the title says, I hate the heat. I hate how tired it makes me. I hate sweating standing completely still. I hate how the relative rarity of this kind of heat here doesn't quite warrant the purchase of an expensive air conditioning unit for my house, but being miserable not having one. Urgh.
OK, I'm done ranting. This past weekend Kelly and I accomplished one goal, we ordered a new desk and chair for the guest bedroom / Kelly's office. We also escaped the heat a bit and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The movie, while great fun, wasn't (for me) quite as good as the first one, but it was well worth seeing in the theater (which, for anyone who knows how I feel about the theater-going experience nowadays, says a lot).
Here's to hoping the weather forecast is correct and that it will drop below 90° F for the rest of the week.
– Signing off, and melting into a big puddle of goo.
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It’s the new style…
As you can probably see, I've finally created a design for the blog, rather than using one of the defaults of the blog software. It's in a pretty early stage and will likely see continued tweaks over the next few days, but I figured it'd be better than what was there before. Well, maybe, you tell me.
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The Weather, This Weekend, Next Wednesday
Been hot again the past couple days (highs over 100° F), with humidity well above 50%, so it's not only hot, but sticky. And seems we're in for a repeat through the weekend. Ugh.
Last night Kelly and I went to our friends Ty and Aymie's for a BBQ (because not even the hot weather will stop the grilling of meats) and had a wonderful time relaxing in their yard. We got home around 12:30, watched some TV (got to see a late-night re-run of the show Psych, pretty funny show) and passed out on the couch.
Today we hope to get some furniture ordered for our guest bedroom… a mattress for the boxspring my brother gave me, and a desk and chair for Kelly since she's starting school again in a few weeks.
This upcoming Wednesday Kelly and I are going to go see Grant-Lee Phillips in concert again. We had seen him about 3 years ago (at the same venue, Berbati's Pan) and it was a fantastic show. He recently released new album titled nineteeneighties, containing covers of songs by artists such as New Order, Pixies, The Cure, The Smiths, etc. The new album is really quite good, though I think I'd have preferred an album of new material, but we're still very excited to see him again. More on that later (hopefully late Wednesday evening).
